Archive for the ‘ Personal Finance ’ Category

The political divisiveness that has percolated since the 2016 election continues to suggest that our ability to view issues from other perspectives is challenged. And that’s a problem not just for our politics, but for our financial lives as well. The allure of a narrow, one-sided perspective is in the simplicity and focus of its message. But that doesn’t make it accurate. As financial advisors, we spend a lot of time reading and thinking about cognitive bias, in other words, how our “hunting stories” may overstate our upside at the expense of the outsider’s objective interpretation.

We are just midway through 2018 and already an array of new legislation has come into effect which will have a big impact on tax liability for both individuals and business. As expected, much of the new change in tax liability stems from the recently passed “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act” (otherwise known as the “Trump Tax Plan” or “TCJA”).

Singer Burke’s Managing Partner, Matthew Burke, recently sat down with the entertainment banking team at City National Bank to discuss tax strategies for athletes as part of CNB’s ongoing Building Your Team interview series.

What’s “conscious action?” Full disclosure: I made it up. But the idea behind it is certainly not mine, nor is it uniquely limited to use in my life or towards my values. In my mind, conscious action means doing what we know to be right, even if our efforts seem to do little to move the needle toward solving a problem.

Buying companies you know or whose products you use offers a persuasive sense of comfort to help combat the risk-taking involved in buying stocks. The strategy has even been touted by notoriously successful professional investors like Warren Buffett and Peter Lynch. Undoubtedly, many investors – including some of you reading this – have even made handsome profits buying the likes of Apple, Amazon, Google or Tesla in recent years. So is there something to this strategy? And if not, why does it seem to work?

Your credit score is used to rate your risk as a borrower, and landlords, lenders and potential employers may look to your credit score as an indicator of financial responsibility. This can affect your ability to rent an apartment, the interest rate on your mortgage and even your career opportunities. As an example, the interest rate on a mortgage could be a full percentage point higher for someone in the lowest credit tier (550 and below) than for someone in the highest credit tier (750 and above). For a $400K mortgage this would result in more than $100K of additional interest over the life of a 30 year loan!

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Singer Burke is a collaboration between two distinct companies, Singer Burke Zimmer, LLP, a tax and accounting firm owned by CPAs and regulated by the California Board of Accountancy; and SB Capital Management, a Registered Investment Advisor owned by its shareholders and regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Clients wishing to engage the services of both firms must contract with each firm separately and render fees as specified under each arrangement.